WOODSTOCK — With consecutive nail-biting losses in its past two games and postseason consideration likely on the line, Marian Central didn’t exactly want to leave anything up to chance Friday night.

The Hurricanes defense responded to that adversity in grand style, crushing a depleted Leo Catholic team in a 29-0 shutout win.

Marian Central limited a Lions team playing without their only true quarterback to 75 yards of total offense – 48 of which came on one pass play late in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand – and only three first downs in moving back to 3-3 overall (1-0 in the CCL/ESCC Red).

“It was a little bit for sure [going through our heads],” said defensive back John Ahler of opportunities missed in the past few games. “Going through the rest of our schedule. we understood that we had St. Rita coming up. We knew we had to get this one and DePaul and one of the other two. It was definitely a big-time win for us to get back on a winning streak and get back some confidence and be able to move forward from there.”

The effort was aided significantly by the absence of Leo quarterback James E’Akels, who nearly had 900 yards passing entering the game. In his place, the Lions (2-4, 1-1) had no choice but to turn to some skill position players that lacked experience at quarterback.

Leo tried three different players, none of which worked. Marian Central feasted on turnovers, collecting four interceptions, including three by Ahler. The Hurricanes also got a key safety right before halftime.

“The kids had a really good game plan and bought into it all week and worked hard on it,” Marian Central coach Darren Fortin said. “They really learned what [Leo] did out of their formations and tried to keep their athletes in check because they do have a lot of athletes on the other side. There’s a lot of speed.”

Even with that defensive domination, the game still was a bit in the balance as Marian Central’s offense came out sluggish in the first half. Outside a 1-yard touchdown run from Brendan Hernon, the Hurricanes struggled to move the ball and even had an interception of their own. It was 9-0 at halftime.

But after halftime, Hernon and company came alive and took over in the third quarter.

Hernon connected with Christian Bentancur for touchdowns on consecutive passes, the first a 28-yarder and the second a 40-yarder. That provided plenty of cushion, pushing the lead to 22-0 with 7:50 still to play in the third quarter.

“We were a little shaky with the offense in the beginning, but we came out in the second half and got after it,” said Bentancur, who had five receptions for 92 yards. “We just kept keeping our heads. We kept telling each other it was going to work and we just have to trust the process. Some balls weren’t going in the beginning, but we knew they were open so we kept running it. And then Hernon was throwing some dots on the field, and we got it done.”

Hernon added a third touchdown pass, a 7-yarder to Matt Laljb, to finish the scoring. He finished 10 of 21 for 141 yards passing. He also rushed for 76 yards on 15 carries.

Matthew Harvey was 4-of-8 passing for the Lions for 57 yards.

It was a big win considering the next two weeks feature traditional power St. Rita followed and Fenwick, both home games.

“It was a point of emphasis,” Fortin said of getting this win knowing is ahead. “We’ve been saying it for weeks. Every week is a playoff game. Two weeks in a row, with [St. Patrick] and Providence, we couldn’t finish. Tonight, the whole thing was about playing fourth quarters and finishing. And they did a great job of that.”